AI tools are everywhere — from chatbots that answer customer questions to language models that summarize everything from documentation to legal text. But if you’ve ever asked a model like ChatGPT to explain your site, your product, or your API, the results might not feel quite right. In fact, sometimes they’re way off. And no, that’s not your fault.
The disconnect between websites and LLMs
Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini are trained to understand a wide range of content. But when they try to interpret your website at runtime, that is, when someone is actively asking them a question, they run into a few core problems:
HTML is noisy. Navigation bars, cookie banners, modal popups, and analytics scripts clutter the page.
Context windows are limited. Most websites are too large for an LLM to process all at once.
Important details are spread across multiple pages or hidden in tables, code blocks, or comments.
Markdown docs may exist, but the model often can’t locate them, or even know they exist.
So, when you ask an AI tool to “explain what this company does” or “summarize this library API”, it often gets stuck. It either skips key context or grabs the wrong signals from cluttered markup.
It’s not bad intent; it’s a design limitation.
Why it’s not your SEO’s fault, either
You’ve probably invested time and effort into search engine optimization. Maybe your robots.txt and sitemap.xml are in place. You’ve got meta tags, structured data, and clean internal links. Good, but LLMs don’t always work like Google.
Traditional SEO helps your site get found. However, it doesn’t guarantee that AI tools will understand what a human user would. That’s where a new proposal comes in.
Meet llms.txt: A simple way to help AI understand your site
A growing number of developers and AI researchers are adopting a lightweight, human-readable standard called llms.txt.
What is llms.txt?
llms.txt is a plain Markdown file placed at the root of your site that provides language models with a summary of your project and direct links to clean, LLM-readable versions of important pages. It’s designed for inference-time use, helping AI tools quickly understand a site’s structure, purpose, and content without relying on cluttered HTML or metadata intended for search engines.
What it does:
Gives a short summary of your site or project
Links to clean, LLM-ready Markdown versions of key pages
Helps AI tools find exactly what matters, without parsing messy HTML
Is it widely supported? Not yet
Right now, no major LLM provider officially supports llms.txt. Tools like GPTBot (OpenAI), Claude (Anthropic), and Google’s AI crawlers don’t reference or follow it as part of their crawling behavior. Some companies like Anthropic publish llms.txt files themselves, but there’s no evidence that any crawler is actively using them in retrieval or training.
Still, it’s a low-effort, no-risk addition that helps prepare your site for a future where structured LLM access becomes more standardized. And LLM-facing tools, or even your own AI agents, can make use of it today.
Example use cases:
A dev library links to .md-formatted API docs and usage examples.
A university site highlights course descriptions and academic policies.
A personal blog offers a simplified timeline of key projects or topics.
You control the content and the structure. LLMs benefit from curated, LLM-aware context. And users asking questions about your site get better answers.
Using our Yoast SEO plugin?
If you’re already using our Yoast SEO (free or Premium) plugin, generating a llms.txt file is easy. Just enable the feature in your settings, and the plugin will automatically create and serve a complete llms.txt file for your site. You can view it anytime at yourdomain.com/llms.txt.
Get Yoast SEO Premium
Unlock powerful SEO insights with our Premium plugin, including advanced content features, AI optimization tools, and real-time data built for the next generation of search.
An LLM-friendly web isn’t the same as a Google-friendly web
This doesn’t replace SEO. Think of llms.txt as a companion to robots.txt. It tells AI bots: “Here’s the good stuff. Skip the noise.”
Sitemaps help crawlers find everything. llms.txt tells LLMs what to focus on.
It’s especially useful for:
Developers and open-source maintainers
Product marketers looking to reduce support load
Teams that want chatbots to pull answers from docs, not guess
You don’t need a new CMS or tech stack
All this requires is creating two things:
A basic llms.txt file in Markdown
Ideally, you’d also have Markdown versions (.html.md) of key pages included alongside the originals, with the same URL plus .md added.
No new tools, plugins, or frameworks needed, although some ecosystems are already adding support.
Here’s an example of a file automatically built by Yoast SEO, as it has an llms.txt generator built in:
Generated by Yoast SEO v25.3, this is an llms.txt file, meant for consumption by LLMs. This is the [sitemap](https://everydayimtravelling.com/sitemap_index.xml) of this website.
# everydayimtravelling.com: Stories from our travels
## Posts
- [Test video](https://everydayimtravelling.com/test-video/)
- [A Journey Through Portugal’s Wine Country: A Suggested Wine Tour Route](https://everydayimtravelling.com/a-wine-tour-through-portugal/)
- [Travel essentials for backpackers FAQ](https://everydayimtravelling.com/travel-essentials-for-backpackers-faq/)
## Pages
- [Checkout](https://everydayimtravelling.com/checkout/)
- [Contact us](https://everydayimtravelling.com/contact-us/)
- [How we started this blog](https://everydayimtravelling.com/pagina-harry-potter/)
- [My account](https://everydayimtravelling.com/my-account/)
- [Cart](https://everydayimtravelling.com/cart/)
## Categories
- [Europe](https://everydayimtravelling.com/category/europe/)
- [Asia](https://everydayimtravelling.com/category/asia/)
- [South America](https://everydayimtravelling.com/category/south-america/)
- [Food](https://everydayimtravelling.com/category/food/)
- [Western Europe](https://everydayimtravelling.com/category/europe/west-europe/)
## Tags
- [Budget](https://everydayimtravelling.com/tag/budget/)
Yoast SEO has an llms.txt generator onboard; you can find it in the API settings
Helping AI help you
So, if AI is misinterpreting your website, producing erroneous summaries, or skipping critical content, there’s a reason, and it’s fixable.
It’s not always your copy. Not your design or your metadata. It’s just that these language tools need a little guidance. In the future, llms.txt could be the way to give it to them, and you do so on your terms.
Do you need help creating an llms.txt file or converting your existing content to Markdown for LLMs? Yoast SEO can automatically generate an llms.txt file for you.
Edwin is an experienced strategic content specialist. Before joining Yoast, he worked for a top-tier web design magazine, where he developed a keen understanding of how to create great content.
Increased usage of AI is changing how people discover businesses and services online. While your website may be optimized for traditional search engines, large language models (LLMs) process your website’s information differently. Our new feature, llms.txt offers to bridge the gap. Yoast SEO generates a file that highlights the most important, up-to-date content on your website as an invitation for LLMs to get the right picture. It’s automatic, requires no technical setup, and is ready in one click.
Helping AI understand your website
Unlike search engines that regularly crawl and index websites, LLMs like ChatGPT and Google Gemini work differently. They don’t store website content for future use. Instead, they gather information in real time when responding to user queries.
This means LLMs often only access a small portion of a website while looking for answers. This is especially true for large websites such as news platforms or ecommerce stores. This can lead to incomplete or even inaccurate AI-generated responses. Not ideal if you’re aiming to improve your visibility in LLM-generated answers as part of your marketing strategy.
The llms.txt file gives LLMs a suggested, pre-prepared slice of your website, highlighting your most important and up-to-date content.
Think of it like a helpful guide at the entrance of a large department store. Imagine you’re walking in looking for socks. Someone greets you and hands you a store map that highlights where the socks are, along with other key departments like shoes, checkout, and customer service. You don’t have to use the map, you can wander around on your own, but it makes it much easier to quickly find what you’re looking for.
In the same way, this file helps LLMs quickly identify the most relevant and useful parts of your website. While the models can still explore other areas, giving them clear guidance increases the chances that they’ll surface the right information in their responses.
How is it different from robots.txt?
robots.txt
Tells bots what not to access
Focuses on permission
Used for search engine indexing and crawling
Supported by traditional search engines
llms.txt
Suggests what AI should read
Focuses on guidance and clarity
Helps AI answer user questions more accurately
Designed for large language models like ChatGPT
How does Yoast SEO llms.txt work?
When you turn the feature on, it automatically generates an llms.txt file for your website, using a mix of relevant website data. It draws from:
Your most recently updated content
Technical SEO elements like your sitemap for context
Descriptions you’ve added about your website
This offers large language models a website summary to understand what your website is about and what content is most important.
Managing your llms.txt file
The plugin automatically creates and maintains the llms.txt file for you, refreshing every week. You can preview the file to ensure it accurately reflects your brand and prioritizes the right content before implementation.
Want full control or prefer to manage it yourself? Learn how to manually add an llms.txt file to your website by visiting our developer documentation.
At Yoast, our mission is SEO for everyone
Setting up an llms.txt file manually may only be accessible to a technical few. By automating the process, we make it easier for all website owners to benefit from this new technology, without needing to dive into code.
At Yoast, we believe that everyone should have a say in how their content is seen and used. Especially as AI plays a bigger role in how people discover information online. That’s why we’ve introduced this feature as opt-in, so you can decide if and when it makes sense for your website. We’ve seen early signs that this is something more website owners are starting to think about.
Just as robots.txt tries to help search engines understand what to index, llms.txt suggests which parts of your website large language models should pay attention to.If you’d like to see what an llms.txt file looks like in practice, you can view the live version on yoast.com.
Beth is Product Marketing Manager at Yoast. Before joining the company, she honed her digital marketing and project management skills in various in-house and agency environments.
We’re excited to announce that Yoast AI Optimize is now also available when using the Classic Editor in WordPress!
You’ve finished your copy, great! But those pesky Yoast SEO Analysis lights aren’t all green and you have to make manual changes. That’s where Yoast AI Optimize comes in. With Yoast SEO Premium, you can now get AI-powered suggestions right inside your Classic Editor to help fine-tune your content.
What is Yoast AI Optimize?
Yoast AI Optimize brings smart, targeted SEO support into your writing flow. It gives AI-powered suggestions for specific assessments in the Yoast SEO analysis, such as length, structure, and keyphrase distribution. You’ll see exactly where improvements can be made and get quick, editable suggestions to help you fix them. You can quickly apply or dismiss them; the final decision always remains yours.
Benefits:
Get real-time AI suggestions that help improve SEO and readability
Edit suggestions to match your style and tone of voice
Apply or dismiss suggestions easily without breaking your writing flow
Use it in both the Classic and Block editors with Yoast SEO Premium
Supports optimization for:
Keyphrase in introduction
Keyphrase distribution
Keyphrase density
Sentence length
Paragraph length
Whether you’re using the Classic Editor or sticking with the Block Editor, Yoast AI Optimize helps you improve your SEO score faster, without losing the personal touch.
If you’re curious to know how we built this feature, check out our developer blog post with all the behind the scenes.
Ready to optimize smarter? Update to Yoast SEO Premium to try AI Optimize in the Classic Editor today!
Beth is Product Marketing Manager at Yoast. Before joining the company, she honed her digital marketing and project management skills in various in-house and agency environments.
Now that so many people use AI tools to create content, the questions about the credibility of those tools keep popping up. Can you really make AI-generated content and still meet Google’s E-E-A-T standards? Of course, the answer is yes, but there’s a limit to what you should let these tools do. Incorporating human insights in AI content can help uphold these standards.
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AI helps you move faster and do more, but it can’t replace humans (yet). Do you want readers to trust your content and have it seen as a reliable source in traditional and AI-driven search? Then, you need to have people involved in every stage of the content production process.
In this article, we’ll discuss how to combine AI content with human editing to maintain experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. But we’ll also discuss what happens if you don’t do that.
AI can help you start, but humans make it credible
AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini are trained on enormous data sets. These tools are very good at outlining topics, summarizing facts, and writing initial, high-level drafts of articles. However, the benefits stop there, and going much further will present a risk.
You must remember that AI does not have the intent, context, or experience in your industry. With all the low-quality content that’s spit out daily, that matters more than ever. Google, using the AI Overviews and AI Mode, is trying to surface content that shows real insights from real people.
But why does human involvement matter so much? AI is great, but it often misses nuances and is prone to add filler to your content. It’s also very good at oversimplifying topics. And, because of the way these systems were taught, they cannot pick up evolving best practices or shifts that happen in the real world.
What’s more, if you let the AI run wild, it can even produce content that’s factually wrong. These hallucinations are so confidently written that they sound like they are true, which makes it harder to detect misinformation.
What to do?
It’s fine to use AI, but use it to help you structure content or brainstorm, and don’t publish anything directly. Always use real editors with real knowledge of the topics to fact-check, correct the tone, and make sure the message is on point. This helps you improve trustworthiness in E-E-A-T. You should show that you wrote your content with good intent and oversight.
Remember that AI-generated content is not perfect. In fact, if you use it without having actual people working on it, it could hurt your visibility or reputation. In the end, this could hurt your business. But what are some of those risks when you over-rely on AI content?
False authority and misinformation
Search online and you’ll find many stories describing how AI wrote things that are just plain wrong. AI can misstate facts, make up statistics, and even come up with well-known experts that don’t exist. Publishing content like this in your brand’s name can damage your trustworthiness. What’s more, when search engines or visitors lose trust, it’s very hard to regain that.
Outdated or incomplete information
While there are many developments on this front, with grounding/RAG and LLMs connected to search, most models aren’t updated in real-time. These models often don’t know the latest insights until you specifically tell them. It’s easy to create outdated AI content when you don’t keep a very close eye on this.
Content redundancy
As you know, AI tools get data from existing sources, which will lead to content that looks a lot like content that’s already out there. If your content only repeats those same things, it’s very easy for search engines to ignore your site. It will be hard for Google to see your site as an authority on the topic.
Legal and compliance issues
There are many topics and industries that are very risky to publish on, for instance, the medical, financial, and legal fields. If your AI tool spits out incorrect advice and you publish without a human doing the fact-checking, your business could be found liable in court.
Trust breakdown with your audience
Remember that your readers are also developing a nose for AI content. When they sense that something sounds too generic or disconnected, they might move on to your competitor’s content, if that’s real. This will especially hurt industries that thrive on expertise and trust.
Add experience to strengthen the E’s
The biggest update of E-E-A-T was the addition of Experience. This is Google’s way of recognizing content created by people who have done or experienced what they wrote about. AI does not have this experience; real human beings do.
So, how do you do this? Be sure to include real stories from your team, clients, or projects, ideally with real names, results, and lessons learned. Give internal experts, such as engineers, consultants, or practitioners, a voice and direct input in your content. Don’t forget to interview team members and customers and use their perspectives in your content.
Giving your content more context can also make it stand out more, even in AI search. For instance, instead of simply writing “Solar panels reduce energy bills,” write, “After installing 28 commercial panels, our client in Portland, Oregon, cut annual costs by 35% — enough to pay off the system three years early.”
Make it easy for Google (and your audience) to trust you
Google’s systems, including AI Overviews and AI Mode, look at a lot more than just the words on your page. Google looks at all of the signals surrounding your business and yourself. These signals can help it understand if you and your content are trustworthy.
Improving your credibility signals for users and search engines starts by adding clear bylines with author bios that link to real credentials. This way, it’s easier to find out who is behind the content and why it makes sense for them to write about the topic. Support this with proper structured data, like schema markup for authors, products, reviews, and what else makes sense. Search engines use this to understand your content.
Remember to cite high-quality sources when referring to data instead of vague phrases like “research shows.” Also, set up a system to gather and use reader feedback so you can immediately fix things when they are unclear or plain wrong. Try everything to build and maintain trust while keeping content quality high.
Keep an eye on your Knowledge Graph. Try to get your brand and your experts or owners recognized as entities in search through structured data, Wikidata, Google Publisher Center, or by getting other citations. Think of authority and trust in E-E-A-T as something more visible, both to users and large language models (LLMs).
Always show who’s behind the content
AI content isn’t “real”. You, as a writer, are real. The best way to make your content real is by showing who wrote or reviewed it. Plus, you should show what makes them qualified to write about it. Transparency supports user trust and sets content apart from generic, anonymous posts.
Now, you don’t need a PhD from Harvard to be recognized as an expert for E-E-A-T, but you do need real-world, verifiable experience. In addition, you should publish author bios on your site with specific roles and industry backgrounds. You can also add an editorial or “reviewed by” credit for topics that your experts have fact-checked and edited.
Many big publishers have content guidelines and/or review policies that are available to read at any time. In those guidelines, you might have something simple, like what kind of disclosure you use when you’ve used AI to create a piece of content. That might be something simple like: “This article was drafted using generative AI and reviewed by [Editor Name], [Job Title] at [Company Name].”
Final thoughts
AI is a helpful tool for quickly generating content, but it shouldn’t replace real experiences, insights, or proper editing. Without the human element, you’ll miss the quality and trustworthiness needed to succeed with your content.
If you want your brand to be mentioned in AI search results and stand out amongst the competition, you need to make it clear that there are real people behind this content — real people with real knowledge and experiences.
Feel free to use AI where it can to speed up your work. But do make sure that the essential parts that your readers and search engines will value most are always human.
Google’s guidance on using AI-generated content (for quick reference) The bottom line is that using AI is fine as long as the final content is accurate, original, clearly labeled when necessary, and actually helpful to users.
Generative AI can support research and help structure original content—but using it to mass-produce low-value pages may violate Google’s spam policies, especially those related to scaled content abuse.
Content must meet Google’s Search Essentials and spam policy standards, even when AI tools are involved.
Focus on accuracy, originality, and value—this includes metadata like tags, meta descriptions, structured data, and image alt text.
Always ensure your structured data aligns with both general and feature-specific guidelines, and validate your markup to remain eligible for rich results.
Add transparency by explaining how the content was created—especially if automation was involved. This could include background details and appropriate image metadata.
Ecommerce sites must follow Google Merchant Center’s policies, including correctly tagging AI-generated product data and images (e.g., using IPTC metadata).
Review Search Quality Rater Guidelines sections 4.6.5 and 4.6.6 to understand how low-effort or unoriginal AI-generated content may be evaluated by Google’s systems.
Edwin is an experienced strategic content specialist. Before joining Yoast, he worked for a top-tier web design magazine, where he developed a keen understanding of how to create great content.
As AI-driven search engines rewrite the rules of content visibility, one thing is clear: optimization isn’t dead — it’s evolving. Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Perplexity AI don’t just retrieve web pages; they synthesize answers. And your content? It only gets included if it’s clear, relevant, and easy to extract. The good news? If you’re already using the Yoast SEO plugin, you have some of the most critical tools for this new era baked right into your workflow.
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Learn how to structure content for AI
In this post, I’ll walk through how LLMs evaluate and extract content — and how Yoast SEO’s content analysis features, particularly the Flesch Reading Ease score and green light checks, can help you structure your writing for AI retrieval, not just human readers.
And more importantly, I want to clarify a common misconception: Yoast SEO isn’t about “chasing green lights.” It’s about helping you become a better, clearer communicator. Green lights aren’t the end goal—they’re indicators that you’re aligning your content with the kinds of clarity and structure that serve both readers and AI systems. In a world where LLMs decide what gets surfaced and summarized, being a better writer is your best competitive advantage.
Even if AI search doesn’t dominate your vertical today, it will. The best time to prepare was years ago. The second-best time is right now. Consider this your SEO shade tree: start planting.
What AI search wants from your content
Forget rankings — AI search is about retrievability and clarity. LLMs ingest and parse content based on:
Literal surface-level term matching (yes, keywords still matter)
Structural formatting cues like headings, lists, and bullet points
Clarity of ideas — one idea per paragraph, one purpose per section
Prompt alignment — using the same terminology your audience would use
Even the smartest LLM will skip your content if it’s overly complex, meandering, or fails to mention the query terms directly. That means no more hiding your key points in paragraph five. No more cute, clever intros that never get to the point. The models are pulling excerpts, not reading for nuance.
This is where Yoast SEO shines. Its features, often seen as basic hygiene, are perfectly aligned with what makes content usable by AI.
The Flesch Reading Ease score is more important than ever
In a world of AI Overviews and synthesized summaries, readability is a superpower.
The Flesch Reading Ease score — included in the Yoast SEO content analysis — doesn’t just help human readers skim your content. It helps machines parse and interpret it.
LLMs prefer:
Shorter sentences
Simple phrasing
One idea per paragraph
These are the exact factors the Flesch score evaluates. So when Yoast flags your content as difficult to read, it’s not nitpicking — it’s showing you what might keep your article out of an AI Overview.
Pro tip: When possible, aim for a Flesch score above 60, especially for top-of-funnel or FAQ-style content you want to be quoted or summarized.
And let’s be clear: this doesn’t mean your content has to be simplistic or dumbed down. It just needs to be accessible. Plainspoken, not generic. Direct, not dull. Think of it as writing for a global audience — or a machine that doesn’t have time for interpretive poetry.
You can find the Flesch reading score in Yoast SEO Insights in your sidebar — this is the score for the post you are reading now
Don’t ignore those green lights (Even when you think you know better)
I’ll be honest: I’ve been one of the worst offenders when it comes to ignoring those green lights. I like long sentences. I enjoy prose that meanders a little if it means delivering a point with style. And I’ve spent enough of my career writing professionally that being told how to write by a plugin occasionally rubbed me the wrong way.
But here’s the thing I’ve come to accept: it’s not that the plugin is trying to replace your voice or artistry. It’s that it’s trying to ensure your work can be understood, parsed, and surfaced—especially by machines.
It is absolutely still possible to create highly visible content that doesn’t earn a green light for sentence structure or reading ease. I’ve done it. But those pieces need to be intentional. They need to be structured so that the core ideas—the “meat” of the argument—aren’t buried in the longest paragraph of the article or expressed only in dense, lyrical blocks of text.
If you want to break the rules, fine. But make sure you know where the lines are before you step over them. The art is still welcome—it just has to be thoughtfully placed.
Yoast’s content checks aren’t arbitrary — they’re aligned with how both humans and machines understand text. In fact, many of the green-light criteria align shockingly well with what LLMs are known to favor:
Subheadings every 300 words = easier segmentation and extraction
Introductory paragraph present = good for AI frontloading
Paragraph length = one idea per chunk, which is LLM-friendly
Sentence length limits = fewer chances for parsing failure
In other words: the green light checklist is not just “SEO best practice.” It’s an LLM comprehension checklist in disguise.
And while experienced writers might feel tempted to override these warnings with “but this sounds better to me,” it’s worth considering how much clearer your writing becomes when you follow them. Especially when writing for an audience that might include an algorithm.
Not every traffic light for individual checks has to be green — just make sure the overall lights are
Structuring for LLMs: A Yoast-assisted framework
If you want your content to get pulled into AI-generated answers, try this simple structure — and let Yoast SEO help enforce it:
Start with a TL;DR or definition: Use short, declarative sentences. Bonus if you can bold the key phrase or structure it as a definition. LLMs love to latch onto clear, answer-style content.
Use subheadings to divide your points: Make sure each section answers one specific question or explains one concept. Headings serve as cues for both readers and models.
Use bulleted or numbered lists: Yoast SEO will warn you if a list is too long without proper formatting. LLMs love well-structured lists because they can be directly extracted.
Echo the query language: Use the exact phrases people search for. This helps the AI match your content to user prompts. Literal matching still matters.
End with a clear summary or CTA: AI often pulls from intros or conclusions. Don’t waste them. Reinforce your main point and point readers toward next steps.
Even if you’re writing complex thought leadership content, this structure ensures your brilliance is actually understood and surfaced.
You don’t need Schema if your structure is clear — but it helps
Structured data is still valuable, especially for establishing context and disambiguating entities. But Yoast SEO users should remember: if your page is poorly written or confusing, schema won’t save it.
LLMs cite content that is:
Logically segmented
Written in plain, direct language
Free of interruptions, overlays, or unrelated diversions
Yoast SEO helps you get there — not just with schema tools, but with live readability feedback during writing.
It’s also worth noting that while structured data might support AI understanding, it’s the structure of the writing that matters most for inclusion in AI responses. LLMs pull paragraphs and list items, not rich snippets. If you want to be quoted, you have to be quotable.
TL;DR: Use Yoast SEO to make your content AI-ready
In the age of AI search, optimization means:
Writing like a human, formatting like a machine
Saying things plainly
Echoing how people phrase questions
Structuring content so it can be lifted and used
Yoast SEO’s content analysis isn’t just a checklist — it’s an AI visibility strategy. That little green light might be your ticket to being the source LLMs choose to summarize.
Don’t fall into the trap of writing for the plugin. Use the plugin to write better for people and machines. That shift in mindset makes all the difference.
And as LLMs continue to power more and more of the search experience, from Google AI Overviews to tools like ChatGPT Browse, that visibility is worth more than position #1 ever was. Start now. You’ll be glad you did.
Carolyn Shelby is an expert in SEO and AI, specializing in enterprise and technical SEO and optimizing web architectures. She views SEO and AI as powerful tools to narrate a brand’s journey, aligning content with core values to engage and convert audiences. Her approach is both data-driven and distinctly human, using straightforward, innovative methods to achieve real results.
We love to say that SEO is always changing, and 2024 proved that true. There’s hardly been a year more challenging and exciting than that. But as we’re heading into 2025, we’re sure we have not seen the last of it. With everyone banking on AI, search, and the search industry are set for another sea change. In this post, we hear from twelve seasoned SEO experts for their insights on the future and how you can prepare.
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A look back at SEO in 2024
2024 was a year with many newsworthy developments. We won’t review everything here, as that would need a book, but maybe someone will make a documentary about life as an SEO in 2024. Or maybe life at Google, as the search giant was central to almost all the big news.
Google deemed a monopoly
Let’s start with the biggest: Google faced a significant legal ruling when a federal judge declared it a monopoly in August. This landmark antitrust case found that Google’s dominance in the search engine market violated antitrust laws. Since then, there have been many discussions about potential regulatory changes and impacts on the broader search and tech industry. Currently, it looks like the DOJ will ask Google to sell off Chrome, among other things.
Google launched AI Overviews
In May, Google launched AI Overviews during its I/O event. This new feature uses AI to generate concise summaries in search results, aiming to make searches more efficient and user-friendly. This integration marked a significant advancement in using AI within search engines. AI Overviews are now available in most markets, but not the EU.
Google search documents leak
Around the same time, a massive leak of Google’s search API documentation occurred, revealing over 2,500 pages of internal documents. Although the leaked documents do not contain the algorithm’s secret recipe, they provide valuable insights into Google’s inner workings.
Core updates keeping everyone up at night
Throughout the year, Google’s core updates led to significant swings in search rankings and notable traffic changes for many websites. For many of us, it remains an ongoing challenge to adapt to evolving algorithms quickly.
Keep up to date with the Yoast newsletter SEO is ever-changing. It can be hard to keep up with the latest changes and decide what’s best to focus on. But as a Yoast newsletter subscriber, you no longer need to worry! You’ll receive weekly emails with practical SEO tips and insights to help you quickly improve your site.
Additionally, in March, Google banned Parasite SEO, a practice that exploits high-authority domains for quick ranking. Google uses this ban to improve search quality and eliminate manipulative practices within its search ecosystem. This policy affected major sites like Time, Forbes, CNN, and the Wall Street Journal, as they were penalized for not adhering to Google’s guidelines.
OpenAI launches ChatGPT Search
In non-Google news, OpenAI introduced a search feature within ChatGPT in October, which was another groundbreaking development. This addition allows users to access up-to-date web information directly through the chatbot. As a result, OpenAI became a direct competitor to traditional search engines and offered a new way to find information online.
These were just some of the big events that happened in 2024. SEO is one of the most dynamic industries — never a dull moment! But this also means that you must stay informed and be able to adapt to a rapidly changing environment.
We’ve asked several trusted experts for their insights into what’s happening next in SEO in 2025. We’ll present their answers in themes, starting with the biggest one: the role of AI in SEO.
AI’s role in SEO
Artificial Intelligence is reshaping how businesses and professionals approach SEO. As AI tools become more advanced, they offer both opportunities and challenges.
Content generation and strategy
Arnout Hellemans (independent SEO consultant) believes AI will “massively” transform SEO strategies. However, he says, “The issue is that search engines will leave loads more content out of the index because it’s generic content already there.”
This means businesses must focus on creating unique and valuable content rather than relying solely on AI-generated text. AI can help keep content updated and assist in research, but human oversight remains critical. Hellemans suggests that while AI advances rapidly, “human oversight and rewriting is still really needed.” This balance ensures content remains relevant and engaging.
Streamlining content creation
Lily Ray (VP, SEO Strategy & Research at Amsive) points out that AI can make content creation much more efficient: “More and more companies will find ways to integrate AI into their content creation and optimization strategies. Outside of using AI to generate content, AI can create major efficiencies that streamline the content creation, such as analyzing and summarizing data, producing insights and text content at scale; generating metadata and structured data, and much more. While mass-producing AI content on a large scale can present SEO risks in some cases, using AI creatively and intelligently can dramatically speed up and improve the content ideation and creation process.”
Using AI for more than just content creation
Lily’s colleague Johnny Herge added that content writers will start using AI tools to do more than just produce content. “A new way many SEOs will succeed in 2025 is by using AI to help with the final product besides the copy itself. Coding is made infinitely easier with AI. Using AI will allow writers to make data analytics scripts or scripts that organize data and pull insights that would have previously required a writer to have a different skillset entirely. This likely will lead to writers being able to put forward much further quantifiable insights. ”
Kevin Indig (independent consultant) agrees: “AI + no-code offers SEO and other marketers powerful new workflows around building systems instead of working on single campaigns. I expect us to see many more examples of “systemization” next year, which will lead to smaller SEO teams with larger impact.”
AI and SEO tools will improve
As AI and SEO tools evolve, they will become much smarter. They don’t just identify issues but suggest fixes, making them incredibly valuable. As Kyle Risley (Senior SEO Lead at Shopify) says, “SEO tools will evolve to be more proactive, shifting from merely identifying issues to offering comprehensive solutions. For small businesses with limited time and resources, these recommendations can help improve site quality, even without specialized SEO knowledge. Instead of simply noting “Your title tag is too short,” tools will suggest “Your title tag is too short. Click here to implement a better one.”
AI agents and AI brandbuilding
Jes Scholz (independent Growth Marketing Consultant and SEO Futurist) says, “AI agents will be all the hype, but very few SEOs will actually change their strategy. Only the bold will have the buy-in to take tactics to the cutting edge. But this will be needed as LLM-powered surfaces (AI Overviews, ChatGPT, etc.) start slowly but steadily eating into traditional search. Quick win AI visibility tactics, like best of listicles, will rise and fall like the meta keyword tag of old. Brand building on popular RAGd platforms will likely emerge as a dependable strategy. But no matter what, now is the time you can win the HoM/CMO/CEOs attention.”
Google’s AI Overviews will evolve
Kevin Indig also comments on the evolution of Google’s AI Overviews: “I expect AIOs to morph into other formats next year, similar to how they contain products in shopping. Right now, they look like Featured Snippets, but I expect Google to keep iterating. I also expect them to roll AIOs out even further to monetizable queries, widening the gap between what’s measurable and what’s happening in the search results even more.”
Mark Williams-Cook(SEO Director at Candour) adds: “We’ve long seen the trend of Google trying to keep searchers on their SERP, and with their recent announcement they have reduced the cost of generating AIOs by 90%, I think it’s obvious we’re only going to see more of them. However, AI in the form of LLMs does open new doors, especially with content creation, without falling into the no-value trap of having AI write your content for you.”
Yoast SEO expert insights for 2025
Carolyn Shelby – Principal SEO at Yoast
The balancing act of SEO professionals In 2025, the big shift in SEO will be balancing diversified visibility with unified messaging. As AI-powered platforms, alternative search engines, and social discovery tools like TikTok, ChatGPT Search, and even Reddit increasingly influence how users find information, businesses can no longer rely solely on Google to drive traffic. Success will come from creating a consistent, authoritative presence across these fragmented ecosystems.
SEO professionals will need to ensure brand messaging remains cohesive and trustworthy across all channels while adapting to each platform’s unique requirements. Structured data, multimedia content, and a deep understanding of user intent will become critical to connecting the dots between platforms and maintaining a seamless user experience. In 2025, SEO will evolve into an integrated marketing discipline where visibility and messaging work hand in hand to build lasting trust and engagement.
Adapting to zero-click searches
The rise of zero-click searches is changing how businesses approach SEO. Getting clicks can be harder as users find answers directly on search result pages.
Maintaining visibility
Arnout Hellemans suggests that you “start looking at other platforms (both search engines and AI interfaces) and try to understand how you can be included in their answers (think Claude, ChatGPT, Bing, Brave search engine). By doing this, you can ensure your business remains visible even when traditional clicks decrease.”
Building a brand following
Building a strong brand presence is essential. Arnout advises businesses to focus on “proper marketing, such as building a following or fans. Visibility will start shifting away from Google; I think this is where we will find plenty of opportunities.” Engaging with your audience on social media and other platforms helps maintain interest and loyalty, even if users don’t click through to your site directly.
Leveraging AI and alternative channels
Kyle Risley says, “As clicks become harder to come by in organic search, there are pretty much two options for organic acquisition: hang on to as much of your remaining click share as you can and activate new traffic acquisition channels.” This could mean looking at channels like TikTok and YouTube. These platforms are gaining traction as starting points for user journeys. Businesses can create engaging content on these channels to reach new audiences and drive traffic.
Becoming a source for AI Overviews
Gus Pergolia (Senior SEO Product Manager at Indeed) notes that being a source in AI Overviews can be more relevant than getting clicks: “Imagine searches displaying a brand’s blog as a source (e.g. software listicles). If one of the players is the main source for AI Overviews, they’ve more control over the message vs competitors. Could they change the wording to say better things about them?
“I’d guess many people will see an AI answer mentioning a few brands and what’s being said about them, and later, they will move to each brand’s website to evaluate their options. That specific search was a zero-click, but there’s a new one happening directly to your company’s website.”
“It’s interesting that clicks will decrease, but since AI Overviews are a RAG (AI answers validate with sources), many pages will still have a reason to exist since they’ll validate the AI answer. This is intent-dependent. Many informational, common-knowledge queries won’t require new articles or have a brand impact.”
Reddit is not going away; make use of it
Kevin Indig doesn’t expect Reddit’s growth to slow: “Searchers want connection and a non-commercialized space. I expect Google to improve at showing Reddit posts that are not outdated or thin. The implication is that domains must compete for one less spot since Reddit takes up many top spots in the search results. On the other hand, it becomes a valuable pool of audience insights and engagement. Brands that develop a playbook to grow their visibility on Reddit have a chance to improve their sentiment and create loyal customers.”
Expand your data tracking
Aleyda Solis expects that tracking pixels, SERP features, and clicks vs. no-clicks will become fundamental: “Start monitoring your overall SERP visibility and click behavior: Your SERP features shifts — AI overviews included — pixel visibility from the top, as well as clicks (and no-clicks) shifts per content type and SERP feature, to focus your SEO strategy accordingly.”
Yoast SEO expert insights for 2025
Alex Moss – Principal SEO at Yoast
The evolving role of the SEO: It’s more than just “SEO” As an SEO professional, I’ve witnessed a dramatic shift in our field, particularly in 2024. While the traditional “SEO” title remains, it has become an increasingly outdated term. Our role is expanding, becoming more multifaceted, and demanding a broader skillset. We’re no longer solely focused on optimizing for Google; we’re becoming Discovery Optimization Experts responsible for ensuring brands are found across the entire digital landscape.
Several factors drive this shift, including the rise of AI-powered search engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity and the growing importance of platforms like TikTok and Reddit as legitimate discovery channels.
Furthermore, the perception of SEO as purely a marketing function is misguided. SEOs bring a unique understanding of the digital ecosystem far beyond traditional marketing. We should be more involved in high-level business decisions that shape a company’s online presence, influencing everything from website design to content strategy to product development.
The future of SEO is exciting, but our value still tends to be underrated. Our skillset will need to expand further yet again, practicing through experimentation.
The rising importance of video content
Video content is becoming a key component of SEO strategies. Its engaging nature offers a unique way to connect with audiences.
Video-first approach
Mark Williams-Cook says, “I expect we’ll see many smaller businesses take a ‘top-down’ approach with content now, meaning they will go video first – and I think this is really smart. Video content is cheap, fast to make, and a natural way to pull real insight out of people. With the tooling we have now, it’s easy to automatically produce transcripts, which in turn, LLMs can rewrite into a more traditional ‘article’ style. This approach means you’ll get the video to share over multiple platforms, which is not only hard for AI to replicate but how a lot of people prefer to engage in content.”
Google’s focus on video content
Lily Ray confirms that “video content is increasingly essential, as Google prominently features YouTube and sometimes TikTok across various surfaces, like Search, Discover, Google News, the Video tab, Short Videos, and more. Site owners should be well-versed in changes to how Google indexes video content and expands their text content into visual formats.”
“As it relates to video indexing, Google now requires that a video be the focus of an indexed watch page for the video to get indexed (“Google indexes videos only from indexed watch pages.”) Using YouTube to host the video is another way to ensure that the video is indexed, but be sure to use VideoObject structured data to “connect” your watch page to the YouTube video for the watch page to get video rich features in search results.”
Interactive engagement
Gareth Hoyle emphasizes that “video will also continue to gain importance due to its interactive nature and engagement. AI video will continue to grow, but like the EEAT signals above, curated and well-engaged real video will help businesses showcase themselves to Google’s algorithm and their current and potential new customers.”
E-commerce SEO shifts
The landscape of e-commerce SEO is evolving, particularly with changes in how Google handles shopping queries. Businesses need to adapt to these shifts to stay competitive.
Google Shopping tab focus
Kevin Indig expects “the new Shopping Tab experience to become the default experience for shopping queries. As we’ve seen before, Google often tests a new experience in the shopping tab and then moves it to the main tab. The implication is that e-commerce SEO becomes more about optimizing product pages as Google becomes the new category page.”
Optimizing product pages
As Google will likely integrate more e-commerce features directly into search results, businesses must optimize their product listings. With the emphasis on product pages, businesses should ensure that these pages are detailed and informative. This includes high-quality images, detailed product descriptions, customer reviews, and clear pricing information. Structured data markup can enhance how products appear in search results, increasing visibility and click-through rates.
Product feed accuracy
Accurate and organized product feeds are crucial. Kyle Risley highlights the importance of having “well-organized and error-free product feeds” as search engines increase the visibility of organic product listings. This requires regularly updating product information and ensuring consistency across platforms.
Adapting to new channels
As consumers begin their shopping journeys on platforms like TikTok and YouTube, businesses should consider expanding their presence on these channels. Creating engaging product videos and leveraging social commerce features can attract new customers and drive traffic.
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Today, brand authority is vital if you want to perform well in search results. As search engines evolve, they will develop new ways of determining how valuable your brand is. Building a good — human — brand is one of the best ways to stand out from the crowd.
Targeting branded queries
Aleyda Solis emphasizes that it’s all about brand optimization: “Brand optimization becomes key. It’s clear that Google wants to feature real, authoritative brands at the top of the SERPs, which is also helpful for increasing CTR and optimizing conversions. Grow your brand authority by understanding your company brand positioning and considering it in your SEO strategy: Target your branded queries, specify your brand details with structured data, optimize your knowledge panel details, etc.”
Focusing on EEAT
Gareth Hoyle highlights the importance of EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) referenced content: “As Google continues to improve its ability to weed out low-level, auto-produced AI content, EEAT-referenced content will become increasingly important and visible as Google increases trust based on what it knows about the author rather than just the words on the page. I am sure it will be an ongoing battle as spammers and content sites continue to churn out page after page of content, but the personal brand will help the cream rise to the top.”
Local SEO trends
Local SEO is essential for small and medium-sized businesses attracting nearby customers. As we move into 2025, businesses should focus on a few key areas.
Google Business Profile optimization
Keeping an updated and complete Google Business Profile is essential. Freelance SEO expert Arnout Hellemans emphasizes that a “regularly updated Google Business Profile and a fully completed profile will be extremely important.” This means ensuring that all business information is accurate and up-to-date. Regularly adding new photos, responding to customer questions, and posting updates can make your business more appealing to local searchers.
The power of reviews
Customer reviews significantly impact local search rankings. According to Arnout, reviews with the “right sentiment,” particularly those discussing “the services received and results,” are crucial. Encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews, highlighting their experiences with your services. Responding to positive and negative reviews shows that you value customer feedback and are committed to improving your business.
User experience (UX) enhancements
Improving user experience is key to boosting SEO performance. A smooth and intuitive website keeps visitors engaged and encourages them to explore more.
Form validation and friction reduction
Arnout Hellemans highlights the importance of “proper form validation on lead forms and checkout.” Ensuring that forms work correctly and are easy to use can prevent user frustration. Make sure users can easily fill out and submit forms without errors.
Removing distractions is also crucial. Arnout advises focusing on “the removal of distractions like pop-ups on every page.” Pop-ups can be annoying and disrupt the browsing experience. Limiting their use or ensuring they’re relevant and easy to close can help maintain user attention.
Leveraging SEO communities
Joining SEO communities can be a game-changer for businesses and professionals looking to enhance their knowledge and network. These communities offer support, insights, and opportunities that can drive growth.
Growth of global SEO communities
Jo Juliana Turnbull (Founder and Marketing Consultant at Turn Global) mentions that by 2025, there will be “the growth of global SEO and digital communities.” This growth is particularly beneficial for smaller brands aiming to build authority. Being part of a community provides access to shared experiences and advice from peers facing similar challenges.
Support and learning opportunities
SEO can often feel isolating, especially in smaller companies where one person handles most of the SEO tasks. Jo Juliana notes that these communities help individuals who “look for external support” as they navigate frequent updates and changes in SEO. Participating in events, webinars, and online forums provides valuable learning opportunities and informs members about the latest trends and techniques.
Building networks and careers
Being active in an SEO community can also open doors to career opportunities. Networking with other professionals can lead to collaborations, job offers, and new projects. Jo Juliana points out that people join communities to “feel and be supported,” learn from one another, and advance their careers.
Conclusion to SEO in 2025
As we move into 2025, staying on top of SEO developments is more important than ever. The events of 2024 have shown us how quickly the landscape can change, from legal rulings and algorithm leaks to shifts in digital strategies. These changes underscore the need for you to remain agile and informed.
Join our monthly SEO news webinar to keep up with these changes and gain deeper insights. Alex and Carolyn — our resident SEO experts — talk you through all the latest developments. It’s a great opportunity to stay informed about the latest trends and strategies. Please sign up today and learn how to navigate SEO in 2025. Let’s continue to learn and adapt together.
Would you happen to have any thoughts about SEO in 2025 to share? Please comment on this post!
Edwin is an experienced strategic content specialist. Before joining Yoast, he worked for a top-tier web design magazine, where he developed a keen understanding of how to create great content.
Last week, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Search — a new way to search the web using AI inside a chatbot interface. Thanks to the integration of Microsoft Bing real-time data and other interesting sources, this could challenge traditional search engines.
Table of contents
How does ChatGPT Search work?
ChatGPT Search is a helpful tool that makes it easier to find information with a little help from AI. It is connected to the web in real time and uses Bing’s index and other sources to show up-to-date results with source links.
It’s simple to use. Just click the globe icon to activate the web search feature. Ask a question about current events, for example, and ChatGPT will determine if it needs more information. If necessary, it will gather that information in the background.
It displays the generated results and the sources used in the chat window. The sidebar adds more context and includes links. These source links let you quickly verify the information, which makes it easier to check the trustworthiness of the results. They also provide a starting point for exploring the topic further.
ChatGPT shows the latest news on the 2024 COP29 conference, with proper links and more search results
OpenAI works with media organizations worldwide to make sure that ChatGPT Search delivers high-quality, relevant answers. These include the Associated Press, Axel Springer, Condé Nast, Financial Times, Hearst, Le Monde, News Corp, Prisa (El País), Reuters, The Atlantic, Time, etc.
Of course, because it is a chatbot, you can discuss the search results and ask it to clarify or expand on sections. It will also show images and whatever is relevant to the search. Things like weather, stocks, maps, and sports have their own graphic interface to communicate the results clearly.
Together, these make Search a useful and versatile tool for many topics and tasks, allowing you to access them without leaving your chat window.
ChatGPT Search vs. Google’s AI
Google’s AI Overviews appear at the top of search results, providing summaries from its extensive web index. Users can click on links to access more detailed web pages. For a more chat-like experience, Gemini is Google’s main ChatGPT competitor.
ChatGPT Search is part of the ChatGPT interface and allows for conversational interaction. It uses Bing’s index and other sources to provide real-time answers with source attributions. Users can ask follow-up questions, so the chat experience becomes very dynamic.
ChatGPT Search shows links directly near the answer but also in the sidebar
Integration with Microsoft Bing
Microsoft Bing is central to how ChatGPT Search works. While it uses various sources, Bing is currently a major driving force. It is a huge data source that helps the AI deliver current and accurate information. Thanks to Bing’s index, ChatGPT gives users the latest details on various topics. If your site isn’t in Bing’s index, it won’t appear in ChatGPT’s results. So, getting your content indexed by Bing is crucial if you want it to be visible.
Bing’s index gives ChatGPT Search access to a wide range of information. Whether it’s news, weather, or financial data, Bing has an impressive database of topics. And while we’ve always seen the Microsoft search engine as less relevant than Google, this new collaboration puts it back in the spotlight.
Microsoft Bing doesn’t just play a technical role in the background. It has a big hand in how AI can help uncover and show information, which could help improve its position amongst the other search engines. Bing and ChatGPT Search want to change how we find and use information online.
Ask ChatGPT Search about recent developments in stocks, and you’ll get great insights
What does this mean for SEO?
Of course, incredible technology is irrelevant if no one uses it. So, whether or not OpenAI’s new search feature will reach a mass audience remains to be seen. Still, the introduction of ChatGPT Search should make you think about your AI and SEO strategy. With Microsoft’s search engine as one of its main data sources, it’s more important than ever to get your content indexed by Bing.
Simply put, your SEO work should include Bing alongside other major search engines. Optimizing for Bing increases the chances of your content appearing in ChatGPT Search.
You should regularly check your content’s indexing status on Bing. Bing Webmaster Tools is an excellent tool for identifying gaps in indexing. Fixing these issues helps make your content visible and findable by users across both Bing and ChatGPT platforms.
Paying more attention to Microsoft Bing in your SEO plan isn’t just about increasing visibility. It also helps your site prepare for other forms of AI search technology. As ChatGPT Search becomes more widely used, it will become even more important that your content reaches its intended audience — wherever it may be.
As it’s a chatbot, you can simply ask questions if you are looking for specific topics or answers
New OpenAI crawler
OpenAI also gives us new options to control the visibility of our sites and content. ChatGPT Search comes with a new crawler — in addition to the existing GPTBot — that helps surface content show. OAI-SearchBot focuses on search tasks. It links to and displays websites in search results for the OpenAI search features. To have your site appear in search results, allow OAI-SearchBot in your robots.txt file. If you want to block it:
User-agent: OAI-SearchBot Disallow: /
Remember that this crawler does not crawl content to train OpenAI’s generative AI models; it’s just for surfacing it.
Future developments
OpenAI plans to expand ChatGPT Search, making it more versatile and user-friendly. They aim to include features for shopping and travel queries. The goal is to give users recommendations and information within their ChatGPT interactions.
The company is also working on integrating these features with Advanced Voice Mode and Canvas, which would enable voice-activated searches and collaborative tasks. Combining all of these features makes it a very interactive, flexible tool.
ChatGPT Search could become a beloved tool for accessing information online. The search experience is already very exciting, with the ability to deliver real-time, context-rich answers. With the speed at which things move, we can expect more precise responses and interesting search features as the system learns and improves.
We’ll see improvements in more than just technology. If OpenAI keeps adding new partners, the content available through ChatGPT Search will continue to become richer and more comprehensive. These collaborations will supply high-quality information covering a broad range of topics.
ChatGPT Search has specific interfaces for specific pieces of news, like the weather
Conclusion on ChatGPT Search
We’re heading into a new age with ChatGPT Search. This tool offers a very solid implementation of AI-powered search technology. Thanks to Microsoft Bing and other data sources from publishing partners, it offers a fast and efficient way to access information. We’ll see how the tool’s development goes, but it might redefine our search and SEO approach. As such, we’ll find new opportunities and strategies to help our readers uncover our content.
Edwin is an experienced strategic content specialist. Before joining Yoast, he worked for a top-tier web design magazine, where he developed a keen understanding of how to create great content.
It’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for: today, Yoast AI Generate launches on Yoast SEO for Shopify! Yoast SEO’s AI features are designed to ensure all our customers can benefit from smarter SEO solutions that save time and effort. The tool is perfect for adding finishing SEO touches to your content.
What does Yoast AI Generate do?
Yoast AI Generate brings our highly successful award-nominated feature to Yoast SEO for Shopify customers. The feature provides users with AI-powered suggestions for product and content meta descriptions and titles. With every click of any ‘use AI’ button, five suggestions are generated from which you can choose. If the options are not to your liking, you can regenerate five more easily. Alternatively, you can apply and tweak it to suit your needs, which is ideal for anyone unsure about handing over any part of the copywriting process to AI.
To access the new feature, customers must first grant consent to use AI and be on one of the product, collection, or post pages within the Yoast SEO app. From any of these pages, you can see the signature AI sparkle next to the Shopify SEO title, meta description, and social title and description.
Currently, there are no additional or hidden costs to use the feature. However, you will notice the sparks counter located at the top right of the AI generator pop-up model. At the moment there is no limit on the number of sparks you can use to generate titles and meta descriptions with any paid Yoast SEO for Shopify plan. The counter is currently set to 100, but you may surpass this limit without issue for now. Of course, the general Yoast AI rate limits apply. The counter resets on the first day of every calendar month.
What are sparks and how do they work?
A spark represents a single click on any of Yoast’s AI-powered features. For example, when you click ‘Use AI’ to generate five options, that counts as one spark. Each time you regenerate, that’s another spark.
Help us improve: provide feedback
We invite your feedback on the new Yoast AI Generate feature, which is currently in beta alongside all Yoast AI tools. Your input is crucial in helping us improve and fine-tune the AI-driven title and meta description generation functionality. By sharing your insights and suggestions, you’ll play a key role in shaping the future of this tool and enhancing your SEO quality. Please share your feedback here.
Try out Yoast AI Generate for your Shopify store today
Streamline your processes and receive SEO-ready suggestions at a click when you have Yoast SEO for Shopify. Check out the new feature the next time you log in to your online store.
Beth is the Product Marketer at Yoast. Before joining the company, she honed her digital marketing and project management skills in various in-house and agency environments.
AI-powered search tools like SearchGPT have sparked both excitement and concern among SEOs. Recently, industry prognosticators have expressed fears about AI-driven tools undermining traditional traffic sources. They worry that widespread adoption of these tools will divert so much traffic away from previously profitable websites that the decline in visibility will “unalive” those sites completely.
Table of contents
It’s normal to feel nervous about new technologies, especially when they seem to change not only the core of how you understand search works, but also change searcher behavior in general. Thankfully, anxiety fades when facts are clear. Let’s break down why AI-powered search is not built on theft and how it fits into the broader SEO ecosystem.
Understanding how AI-powered search works
Before addressing the claims of content theft, we must first understand how tools like SearchGPT function. At its core, these AI tools are large language models (LLM) trained on vast amounts of publicly available text data. This training process involves learning patterns in language to generate human-like text responses. Unlike traditional data analysis or fact-learning, the “training” focuses on understanding and predicting language rather than memorizing specific facts. This, then, begs the question: “Does it really, truly answer questions, or does it just create accurate-sounding guesses?”
Data gathering and synthesis
When a user submits a query, SearchGPT (specifically, but this is probably true of similar tools) processes the input by analyzing and interpreting the request using its trained language patterns. This means the way the search for facts is constructed is more accurate than relying solely on the terms inputted by the user. Then, instead of merely searching for and retrieving existing content, it looks at all the content from multiple top sources. It synthesizes that information (meaning it reads and evaluates all the retrieved content) to construct a coherent and comprehensive response.
The “synthesizing” process involves:
identifying relevant data points
understanding the context of the query
evaluating the expertise and likelihood of accuracy
and integrating information in a way that aligns with the user’s intent
Generating original content
SearchGPT doesn’t copy and paste text from websites. Instead, it generates new content based on the patterns it has learned during training. This process is similar to how human writers use their knowledge and experience to create original articles. By leveraging sophisticated algorithms, SearchGPT (and other tools) ensures that the generated text is both unique and informative, providing valuable answers without replicating existing content verbatim.
Ensuring accuracy and relevance
To maintain high standards of accuracy and relevance, AI-powered search has processes in the background to evaluate the reliability of the information it synthesizes. It prioritizes data from authoritative sources, cross-references information to minimize errors, and continually adapts to new information to provide up-to-date answers. This dynamic capability ensures that users receive responses that are not only accurate but also reflect the latest knowledge and trends.
The dynamic nature of AI responses
This is where the general understanding of how AI creates search responses and content goes astray. When tools like ChatGPT or AI-powered search tools write new content or provide answers, they are not relying solely on data points and facts that they have been *previously* trained on; the data set is not “old.” The AI’s ability to search for and adopt new information allows it to refine its responses over time, ensuring that the answers remain relevant, valuable, and accurate. This continuous learning process means that AI-powered tools can adjust responses to better meet users’ needs as user behavior and information evolve, providing a more personalized and effective search experience.
To sum up, tools like SearchGPT function by gathering and synthesizing information from a wide array of sources (that they find on the web) to generate original, accurate, and relevant responses to user queries. This process ensures that while the AI provides quick and concise answers, it does so by leveraging a deep understanding of language and context rather than stealing or copying content.
The role of attribution and source linking
The biggest concern among SEOs is the traffic loss if AI-powered search provides direct answers without driving clicks to the source website. This fear is completely understandable but overlooks an important aspect: the role of attribution.
Many AI-powered search engines, including those integrating models like SearchGPT, prioritize providing users with accurate, high-quality information. In doing so, they include links back to the original sources. This attribution ensures that websites receive credit and traffic for their content. Rather than stealing clicks, AI serves as a conduit, directing engaged users to the source of the information for more in-depth exploration.
However, this also means that the core concern, that some sites might lose traffic because they are not chosen as the cited source for the information, is a reasonable concern. The way to combat this loss isn’t to fight against adopting new technology (because that is probably futile at this point). The best way to fight is to ensure the cited source is YOUR source. This will become the new focus of SEO.
AI as a complement, not a competitor
The notion that AI-powered search will “kill” websites is rooted in a misunderstanding of how these tools are intended to function. AI doesn’t replace the need for high-quality, authoritative content; it amplifies it. Search engines and AI tools rely on the experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (EEAT) of websites to deliver relevant and credible information to users.
Websites that invest in EEAT will continue to thrive, as AI tools will naturally prioritize their content in response to user queries. In this sense, AI becomes a partner in the SEO journey, helping to surface the best content and ensure it reaches the right audience.
Websites that are “killed” by AI-powered search won’t be innocent victims of a new technology run amok; rather, they’re more likely to have been removed from the knowledge pool by digital Darwinism — “survival of the fittest“ and all that.
The future of SEO in an AI-driven world
As with any technological advancement, AI-powered search tools will require SEOs to adapt and evolve their strategies. However, this evolution doesn’t mean the end of traditional SEO practices. Instead, it highlights the importance of optimizing for both AI and human users — which is not all that different from the old guidance to “optimize for both robots and human users.” See? What’s old is new again!
By creating valuable, authoritative (read: unique!) content that meets users’ needs, websites can continue to grow their visibility and influence in an AI-driven world. SEO professionals who embrace these changes and integrate AI into their strategies will be better positioned to succeed.
Dispelling the myth of theft
The idea that AI-powered search is built on theft is misleading and overlooks the potential benefits these tools bring. Rather than fearing AI, SEOs should leverage it to enhance their strategies, drive more meaningful engagement, and ensure their content remains at the forefront of search results.
AI isn’t here to steal; it’s here to drive evolution. It’s not the biggest or loudest that thrive on the web, but those who adapt. Just as in nature, survival belongs to the fittest—those who innovate, evolve, and embrace the future.
Carolyn Shelby is an expert in SEO and AI, specializing in enterprise and technical SEO and optimizing web architectures. She views SEO and AI as powerful tools to narrate a brand’s journey, aligning content with core values to engage and convert audiences. Her approach is both data-driven and distinctly human, using straightforward, innovative methods to achieve real results.
Today we’re welcoming Yoast AI Optimize to our family of AI features. The AI features are designed to make SEO tasks easier than ever by harnessing the power of AI. The tool is perfect for marketing professionals, freelance writers, and content strategists. This brand new feature ensures your carefully-crafted content is search engine friendly.
What does Yoast AI Optimize do?
You have finished drafting your copy, and you are relatively happy with the results. Great! Until you realize that there’s a lot of manual tweaking needed to implement the suggestions in the Yoast SEO analysis. We get it, reworking copy is not the most interesting part of blogging. In fact, internal research informed us that optimizing content for SEO is the most tedious and challenging part of the content creation process. At the same time, our customers know how important this final stage can be to gaining visibility in the SERPS. So we found a solution. This is where Yoast AI Optimize steps in to help your content over the ‘SEO’ finish line.
How you can access the new feature
Easily recognizable by the color fade and signature sparkle icon, Yoast AI Optimize is automatically available to all our Yoast SEO Premium customers. To access, customers must have updated to the most recent version, 23.2 and granted consent to use AI.
Where you can use Yoast AI Optimize
Currently you can optimize three of the assessments in the Yoast SEO Analysis; Keyphrase in introduction, Keyphrase distribution and Keyphrase density. Just click on the sparkly icon next to the assessment to receive the AI-powered suggestions.
Pricing and usage
You can look out from behind your fingers, there are no additional or hidden costs! That said, we know you will all understand that to continue offering sustainable innovation using AI, we must consider fair ways to maintain our current pricing. For this reason, we have introduced the spark counter which keeps track of how many interactions you have with our AI features.
At the moment there is no limit on the number of sparks you can generate. Currently, the counter is set to 100, but you may surpass this limit without issue for now. Of course, the general Yoast AI rate limits apply. The counter resets on the first day of every calendar month. Our internal research on usage tells us that this number will not pose a challenge for the vast majority of our customers, allowing for flexible and uninhibited use across all our AI features.
What are sparks and how do they work?
A spark is defined as a single click on a button of one of Yoast SEO’s AI features. In practice, this means that when you click ‘Use AI’ to generate five example meta descriptions, this would be considered one spark. Should you regenerate another five, this would be another single spark.
You can find the spark counter at the top of the dismiss or apply modals which pop up whenever you interact with the feature within the Yoast SEO analysis sidebar.
The new signature colors help you know when you interact with AI
Kai van Grunsven, UX Designer at Yoast, comments on how the UX team created awareness around when our customers interact with artificial intelligence in line with our core ethical values. The spark counter applies to all Yoast’s AI features. Naturally, this is also fully responsive on mobile.
“As a UX designer, my goal was to give our AI features distinct branding that stands out and integrates seamlessly into our UI. I used a ‘sparkles’ icon and a gradient transitioning from Yoast’s purple to indigo to enhance AI buttons and the spark counter. This familiar icon and modern color scheme help users recognize and engage with our AI features effortlessly, ensuring a visually engaging and intuitive experience for our customers.”
Limitations
Yoast AI Optimize, like all other AI features, is currently in beta. This means you may experience limitations when using the tool. For transparency, these are listed below.
Yoast AI Optimize is only available for texts up to around 1000 words. For longer texts, the button will be inactive.
Yoast AI Optimize is only available for the Block editor. It can optimize content in the following blocks: Paragraph, Heading, List, and Table block. Content from other blocks cannot be optimized.
Yoast AI Optimize currently is available for the following SEO checks: Keyphrase in Introduction, Keyphrase Density, Keyphrase Distribution. For keyphrase density, we only support the case in which the keyphrase is underused. If the keyphrase is overused, we do not provide the Yoast AI Optimize feature.
You can only accept or reject all suggestions. It is not currently possible to accept parts of a suggestion.
For longer texts, it might take up to a minute for AI Optimize to produce a result.
Provide feedback on the new beta feature
Yoast AI Optimize is currently in beta, with this in mind, we value your feedback to make it even better. Your insights and suggestions will help us refine and enhance the AI-powered title and meta description generation feature. To help shape this tool’s future and contribute to your SEO strategy’s success, please provide feedback here.
Try out Yoast AI Optimize today
Upgrade to Yoast SEO Premium to unlock the full potential of our AI features! Gain access to all our advanced tools, including the award-nominated Yoast AI Generate and the powerful Yoast AI Optimize. Streamline your processes and receive SEO-ready suggestions at a click when you upgrade to the latest version, 23.2.
Beth is the Product Marketeer at Yoast. Before joining the company, she honed her digital marketing and project management skills in various in-house and agency environments.
